While remedial educational programs may have some
modest beneficial impact, most researchers agree treatment and aftercare
are essential to achieve significant behavioral change in hardcore offenders.
Education programs typically last two to six weeks, with 10 to 16 hours
of classroom time, and should be viewed as a component of treatment.
In Missouri, all persons arrested for DWI are required to complete an assessment
screening of alcohol use and driving behavior. Lower risk, first-time offenders
may be assigned to a 10-hour Offender Education Program (OEP), part of a
larger Substance Abuse Traffic Offenders Program (SATOP) designed to help
them understand the choices they made that led to their intoxication and
arrest.
In North Carolina, DWI offenders can be required to attend a post-assessment
Alcohol/Drug Education Traffic School (ADETS) as a condition of license
reinstatement and probation. Twenty-five percent of all individuals assessed
for DWI in North Carolina in a 2001 report were mandated to attend ADETS.
One hundred percent of those offenders successfully completed the program
consisting of an approved curriculum of 10–13 hours in a classroom setting
taught by a certified ADETS instructor at a private or public facility.
Offenders pay a $50 substance abuse assessment fee and a $75 fee for the
ADETS program (Baker 2001).
In Ohio, punishment for first offenders includes three consecutive days
in jail or attendance in a three-day Driver’s Intervention Program (DIP).
The 72-hour weekend program is designed to facilitate participants’ awareness
of their relationship with alcohol and/or other drugs and the consequences
of impaired driving. Recommendations and referrals are made as necessary,
and individualized after-care plans are prepared upon program completion.
The program includes a defensive driving course containing lectures and
films about driving skills and providing a 2-point reduction from the driving
records of qualified persons. The jail time or time in the intervention
program is doubled for violators convicted of having a BAC above .17 (Ohio
Department of Public Safety 2003).
Although a 2002 report found alcohol education programs were effective in
reducing DWI re-offenses among alcohol-related reckless offenders by 27.8
percent (Tashima and Helander 2002), most repeat offenders are more in need
of treatment programs than merely education. A 2001 report found 74 percent
of DWI offenders assessed in North Carolina completed a treatment program
rather than simply an education program (Baker 2001). Other research has
found in some court-mandated educational programs, more than one third of
participants stop for a drink on their way home from the program meeting
(Brown 1997). |
Baker, D., Helton, K., & Boone, J. 2001. Driving While Impaired (DWI)
Substance Abuse Assessment Report. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Department
of Health and Human Services. |
Tashima, H.N., and Helander, C.J. 2002. Annual Report of the California
DUI Management Information System. Sacramento, CA: California Department
of Motor Vehicles. |
